The June 25-26 meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be anything but business as usual. In wiping the slate clean just two weeks before the panel was to meet, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy made sure of that.
Archeus Technologies Inc. has obtained IND clearance from the FDA for ART-101, a novel receptor-based targeting small molecule for the imaging and treatment of prostate cancer.
On the same day that FDA Commissioner Martin Makary spoke in a fireside chat during the 2025 Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s International Convention, the agency unveiled a pilot commissioner’s national priority voucher program that will enable companies to receive a shortened FDA review time of one to two months.
Using informed consent to do what Congress couldn’t, the U.S. FDA is flexing its regulatory authority to halt clinical trials that involve sending cells from American patients to China or other adversarial nations for genetic engineering and subsequent infusion back into the patient.
One year after the FDA’s nod, the EMA is following on and recommending conditional approval of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Rezdiffra (resmetirom) as the first drug in Europe for treating noncirrhotic metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.
The realignment within the U.S. FDA continued with reports of the removal of two high level executives. When asked by BioWorld if the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research’s (CBER) Office of Therapeutic Products director and deputy director had been forced out and if so, why, an HHS spokesperson responded on background with a single sentence: “Center directors deserve to be supported by managers that are aligned with aggressive goals to expeditiously advance therapeutics for rare diseases using the gold standard of science.”
To no great surprise, the U.K.’s health technology assessment body has found that the benefits of the first two approved Alzheimer’s disease drugs are too small to justify the costs. Neither Kisunla (donanemab, Eli Lilly and Co. Inc.) or Leqembi (lecanemab, Eisai Co. Ltd.), “demonstrate sufficient benefit to justify their high cost, including the cost of administering them,” the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) concluded after an extended appraisal of the two amyloid neutralizing antibodies.
Diagonal Therapeutics Inc.’s DIAG-723 has been awarded orphan drug designation by the FDA for the treatment of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). Additionally, the EMA has provided a positive opinion for orphan drug designation, confirming that DIAG-723 meets the criteria for designation as an orphan drug in the E.U.
Amid rising demand for its Neuromark system, Neurent Medical Ltd. opened a new manufacturing facility in Ireland, which will serve as the central hub for the production of the device which treats chronic rhinitis.
The 17 members abruptly terminated June 9 from the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices are not going gently into the night. Instead, they’re raging against what could be the dying of the light.
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